City of Lies: Love, sex, death and the search for truth in Tehran

Emmy Award-winning journalist Ramita Navai left the city of her birth at the age of six to live in Britain. But she never forgot Tehran’s magnetic pull. Returning there as a foreign correspondent, she discovered a society bubbling with change and excitement.

Traveling up and down Tehran’s main street, Vali Asr, she heard the stories of ordinary Iranians forced to live extraordinary lives: a mullah and a prostitute; a student blogger; a porn star; and a devout admirer of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The result is a frank, startling, sometimes shocking glimpse inside the Iran outsiders never see. (Submitted by Saied)